Nigerian Scam

[george29]

This thread may be locked very soon as it is not gun related, however, I want to remind members to be vigilant in regard to their elderly relatives who use ebay, craigslist and other internet sites. My friends elderly stepfather was just recently conned out of $7000 selling his piano on ebay to someone in Britain. The piano is still in the house but the stepfather was conned in the regular check-kiting scam. Using ficticious sites in the UK and USA makes the intended victim belive he is safe, when in essense it is our old friends the Nigerians using servers in western countries, mainly the UK right now. You may have a relative who is right now being scammed and is embarassed to tell you. The newer twist on this is that they first hook the victim with a small payment transfer of $500 and then hit them for a second and third payment of much higher amounts. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud the victim becomes invested emotionally with the first small payment and is for some reason believes that by sending more payments they will get their money back.
I know it doesn't make sense, so just watch your elder friends and relatives.
BTW, another friend was scammed using the Nigerian Romance Scam and she is 37 and usually savvy.
Be careful out there people.

 

[220_Swift]

I had a couple guns listed on Gunbroker a couple months ago. I was contacted six different times, and every one of them smelled like a con. They hit any and all internet sales, and seem especially interested in the gun sales lately. A good friend of mine was contacted by a scammer last week regarding an auctionarms sale.

 

[Blackbeard]

Nice save, Swift. Now it's gun related.

So how does the scam work? How do they get your money if you're selling something? They get your PayPal or bank account number and drain it?

 

[brigadier]

Someone needs to put some pressure on the Nigerians to put an end to this. These crimes will continue as long as they go unpunished.
That be the case, lets hope they keep trying to scam gun owners. With any luck, they may cross the wrong one, who make a little trip over seas.

 

[Mal H]

"Now it's gun related."

Not really.